Elbow positioning in DB Presses

10-24-2007, 05:11 PM

vision

Elbow positioning in DB Presses

I didn't want to jack the other post about DB Presses and whether or not to touch your chest with the DBs.

But I see a lot of people do DB presses differently. I'm wondering which way hits the chest more keeping your arms perpendicular to your body or keeping your upper arms at a 45 degree angle from your body.

From a functional stand point I assume the 45 degree is better but it also hits my triceps pretty hard which is fine but since I stopped lifting heavy on BB presses the DB press has become my primary chest exercise.

I do them somewhere in between perpendicular and 45 degrees. 45 degrees is far to rigid for me, and isolates specific muscles too much and doesnt hit the entire chest. As a rule I try and keep the dumbells at my nipple area and just push up. The arms will go where they want to to get the weight up - usualy somewhere inbetween 45 degrees and perpendicular to your body.

The whole point of doing DB presses is get a better range of motion so dont restrict your self too much. Play around with it and see what works best for you to get a pump.